


A Whole New World

by lunaofthemiste



Category: Battle for London in the Air (Roleplay)
Genre: Gen, Immortal Illuminati AU, Wholesome!, the start of a great friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:41:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28001079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaofthemiste/pseuds/lunaofthemiste
Summary: Irving makes an important discovery on Jaydyn's second day in the IIA office.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	A Whole New World

**Author's Note:**

  * For [closetcellist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/closetcellist/gifts).



Despite most of their staff being highly skilled in nearly every field, the IIA had one main flaw: technology, specifically anything very modern. Appointing a new head of IT had been one of Irving’s goals for years, especially since that the lack of a head meant all of the responsibilities fell to him. At this point, he was busy enough dealing with everyone’s complaints about each other that the _last_ thing he wanted to do was attempt to fix a computer. When he received news that someone had finally been hired to fill the position, he was overjoyed, and rightfully so. Jaydyn T. Hacker had been the perfect fit for the role, and in the one conversation he’d had with them, they seemed like someone who wouldn’t be one of the causes of Irving’s headaches.

His headaches were usually caused by those in administration, which meant that the office was, unfortunately, never quiet. Irving preferred staying in his office for a reason, mostly avoiding his co-workers. He received enough emails and complaints that the thought of interacting with some of them in person was somewhat unbearable at times. Every time he left his office, there seemed to always be someone flagging him down with a complaint or question. He had found, in recent years, that these interactions could be shortened or entirely avoided if he had the proper excuse, which usually took the form of urgent paperwork that needed to be filed immediately. The looming threat of anything being late was usually enough to brush off a conversation, especially if those threats went by the name Liam O’Rourke.

Today’s excuse was also the reason he was leaving the safety of his office - paperwork for Jaydyn. He could have waited until later since it was only Jaydyn’s second day in the office, but Irving would have preferred to get this done with. It wasn’t every day that a new department head was hired, after all, and paperwork meant that the position was officially filled. 

He quietly walked to his office door and opened it, careful not to disturb his current office companion Baby, who was sleeping peacefully under his desk. Once Irving saw that Baby hadn’t been woken up, he slowly left and locked the door behind him. He wished he didn’t have to lock his door, but his fellow co-workers had proven more than once that they couldn’t be trusted with unlocked doors.

Irving made his way to Jaydyn’s office and found that he was lucky today - no one stopped him to complain along the way. He knocked on Jaydyn’s door and waited for a response. Jaydyn’s office door didn’t have a window like his door did, which was both a blessing and a curse. His own door window only gave him more work to do, and while Jaydyn could avoid that, he also wasn’t sure if they were in or not. Maybe he would suggest politely to Jaydyn putting a sign on the door to let others know if they were in or out. 

After waiting a few more minutes without a response, he sighed and opened the door, hoping he wasn’t interrupting anything. Jaydyn’s office was filled with boxes, which was to be expected considering they just moved their items in. The only item that had been set up was their computer, which they were looking at.

“Hello?” Irving knocked again, this time on the wall, hoping to catch Jaydyn’s attention. Luckily, they looked up, pulling out the earbuds that they had been wearing. Irving could hear the tinny sound of music from the earbuds from across the room - the music must have been loud enough to block out Irving’s previous knocks.

“Yeah?” Jaydyn asked casually.

“I have a few more forms for you to sign,” Irving explained, carefully making his way through the mess of boxes to their desk. “I’m sorry about the paperwork, once you’re done with onboarding there’s a lot less.”

Jaydyn shook their head. “Nah, it’s fine. It’s only a little bit more than the coffee shop, and that was a coffee shop. Sorry about the mess, just trying to get everything in first before setting up,” they apologized, taking the forms that Irving offered.

Irving nodded as Jaydyn started to fill out the forms, then realized he had been standing there too long to rationalize leaving without it being awkward. He decided to occupy his time by looking around, though there really wasn’t much to look at. The boxes in the office were all traditional brown cardboard ones, with Jaydyn’s scrawly handwriting marking what each box contained on the side. There were also a few posters leaning against the wall, waiting to be mounted. The top poster was a picture of seven men that Irving didn’t recognize, though he honestly didn’t recognize all that much in today’s pop culture. Jaydyn’s deck was a traditional L-shape, with their computer and double monitors mounted perpendicular to him. He could see their screen but wasn’t sure what exactly they were looking at.

Jaydyn’s voice interrupted his thoughts - they must have caught him looking at their screen. “It’s just Tumblr,” they explained, which didn’t help very much.

“What’s Tumblr?” Irving asked.

“It’s this blogging website, it’s pretty chill,” Jaydyn shrugged as they started filling out the second and final form.

“You write a blog?” 

“Um...it’s more complicated than that. I usually just reblog stuff from other people and mess with my theme once a year,” they explained. “I only post text stuff occasionally, I usually use Twitter for that kind of thing.”

Irving nodded slowly. “That’s very interesting,” he said, though he barely knew what any of that meant. “So you...interact with other blogs?” He guessed after another minute of uncomfortable silence.

“Yeah,” Jaydyn nodded as they finished the paperwork, handing the papers back to Irving. “You can comment and like stuff too, but most of it is reblogging. Here - I can show you,” they said, moving their chair to face their computer monitor. Irving leaned over to get a better look as well. The screen was a dark blue filled with smaller white boxes. Some of the boxes were text, while others had pictures inside - most of the ones on Jaydyn’s screen had what Irving assumed was a boy band of some sort, the same one from the poster. “This is the dashboard, where you see posts from everyone you follow,” they explained as they scrolled down.

“I see. The people you follow, they all post things that interest you, like this...boy band?” Irving pointed to the moving picture of seven poster boys singing.

“Yeah, I follow a lot of BTS, but other stuff too. Lots of memes”

“BTS?”

“The band,” Jaydyn explained. “Jungkook, Jimin, V, Jin, Suga, RM, and J-Hope,” they said, pointing at each boy as they said their names. “It’s K-pop, I don’t know if that’s really your thing.”

Irving shrugged. “I don’t really know much about that, to be honest.”

Jaydyn nodded, tapping their fingers on the desk. “I can help you make a Tumblr if you want. I think you’d like it, it’s not all band stuff, that’s just my thing. Honestly, you can find literally anything on here, like, and I mean _anything_.”

“Really?”

“Anything. Plus there aren’t that many celebs so people are pretty chill, there are some toxic people and weirdos but that’s anywhere on the internet,” Jaydyn shrugged, switching their screen to their work calendar. “I have time right now if you want me to help you,” they suggested, turning to face Irving

Irving nodded. He was curious, after all. “That works for me.”

“Perfect, let’s go back to your office and I’ll set you up,” Jaydyn said, pulling their cell phone out of the charger. “Be careful of the boxes, most of them are fragile.”

“What did you bring with you?” Irving asked as he carefully made his way to the door.

“Lots of hacking stuff, stuff to fix computers, very old computer stuff - I wasn’t sure what the job needed so I figured I’d be prepared for whatever you throw my way,” they explained. “The description was vague.”

“It’s understandable, considering all the work that we do,” Irving rationalized, opening the door once he reached it. He held it open behind him for Jaydyn, who followed him as they headed back to Irving’s office. Luckily, no one bothered either of them this time, and Irving was able to reach his office with relative ease.

“What’s this for?” Jaydyn asked, pointing to the lockbox outside of Irving’s office.

Irving sighed as he unlocked the door. “That’s for the short-term on-campus flats. It’s uncomfortable for everyone to return the keys, so they can be dropped off out here.”

“Wait, they were serious about that? Renting on-campus flats for...that?” Jaydyn asked in disbelief, raising an eyebrow.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Irving answered, trying not to think about the countless conversations he had with various individuals after the rental period was over. “It’s better to...reconnect there rather than in the office.”

Jaydyn shrugged. “I guess that makes sense,” they said as they entered Irving’s office. Baby got up from her small bed and waddled over to greet Jaydyn, her little tail wagging with delight to see a new friend. “Hello, Baby,” Jaydyn greeted, bending down to pet the dog.

“Ah, you remembered,” Irving smiled as he leaned down to pet Baby as well. “Most people don’t.”

“It’s just a name, how hard can it be?” Jaydyn snorted, standing up and looking around. “Who’s this?” They asked, pointing to a portrait.

“That’s Acosta,” Irving answered, then paused. “You realize that’s a different dog?”

“Obviously, I’m not an imbecile. There’s a white spot here that Baby doesn’t have,” Jaydyn pointed out, which impressed Irving most of all. “You can see the differences clear as day.”

“I’m glad you’ve noticed. You’d be surprised by how everyone assumes I’ve had the same corgi for years,” Irving explained. 

“Some people don’t pay attention to things,” Jaydyn shrugged, walking over to the desk. “Okay, so the website is called Tumblr,” Jaydyn said, standing over Irving’s shoulder so they could watch him.

“Alright,” Irving nodded, beginning to type T-U-M-B-L-E-R into the browser.

“There’s no E,” Jaydyn corrected, “and Internet Explorer?”

“It’s for the internet, is it not?” He asked, confused.

“There are differences, and Internet Explorer is like, the worst possible browser to use,” Jaydyn explained. “I’ll help you download Chrome.”

“Chrome?”

“Like Google. They own a lot of things. May I?” Jaydyn asked, leaning forward tentatively to take control of Irving’s keyboard. 

“Go right ahead,” Irving agreed. It would probably be faster if Jaydyn did whatever they needed to. They remarked that the internet was ‘fast’ for a place with ‘old wiring,’ whatever that meant, while they installed Google Chrome to his laptop. Once the new web browser was installed, they opened up Tumblr - without an E - and took a step back.

Irving navigated to the ‘Get Started’ button on the screen and was prompted to enter in an email, username, and password. He started to type in his email when Jaydyn stopped him.

“Isn’t that your _work_ email? Do you have another one?” Jaydyn asked. “I wouldn’t associate any accounts with your work email. It’ll be more likely to be picked up by hackers.”

“Hackers?”

“Don’t worry, this place’ll be fine once I fix the firewall, which is kind of weak at the moment, but I would use a burner email for any accounts and non-work business.”

Irving nodded. The logic did make sense, and he did have another email he could use, though he used it rarely. He typed in the alternate email address and selected ‘Username’ and frowned. “What should my username be?” he asked.

“Well, I wouldn’t use your name, but it can be something about you that you enjoy or a joke you find funny,” Jaydyn suggested. “I wouldn’t worry about this, you can always change it later. I’ve changed mine so many times it isn’t funny.”

“Okay,” Irving nodded again, typing in a suitable username, followed by a password. Once that information was accepted and his email was verified, he was met with the same dark-blue screen he had seen on Jaydyn’s computer. “What now?”

“So let’s find you some blogs to follow - you see that box in the top left corner? That’s basically a search bar,” Jaydyn explained. “That will search all the tags on the website to find content matching that. So if you type in ‘corgi’ you should get a bunch of corgi content.”

Irving listened to Jaydyn’s suggestion and typed in ‘corgi.’ Suddenly, his screen was filled with still and moving pictures of corgis, which brought a smile to his face. “That’s a lot of corgis,” he said eventually, taking it all in.

“Yup,” Jaydyn agreed. “The boxes up top are for blogs that use this tag a lot, and here,” they pointed, “you can filter by most popular, most recent, and then by post type.”

“What should I do?”

“Um, I would follow the tag, I guess. That’s this button here,” Jaydyn pointed, “and you can follow some of the top blogs too. If you don’t like them you can unfollow later.”

Irving hesitated, then nodded. “Right,” he said, following Jaydyn’s instructions and following the tag and a few blogs.

“Oh wait, before you do anything else, let me do this,” Jaydyn said, commandeering the keyboard once again and going to Irving’s settings. “This is a work computer, after all, so you can’t look at the..not safe for work stuff.”

“What are you doing?” Irving asked, confused.

“I’m blocking N-S-F-W stuff.”

“Which is?”

“Not Safe For Work. It’s porn, basically, and that’s not really a work thing. I guess Tumblr isn’t a work thing either, but it’s probably okay since you’re HR. It’s not like you’re going to report yourself,” Jaydyn shrugged. “Just...I hope this is okay to say, but if you want to look at that stuff don’t do it on a work computer. Also just be careful what you click, the last thing we need is a Trojan Horse or something.”

“Don’t worry, I’m well aware that this sort of thing isn’t meant to be done during work hours and on work devices,” Irving assured them. “Plus, I’ve gone through our Internet Safety Guidelines and I make sure to adhere to them.”

“Right, that,” Jaydyn nodded. “I need to make some updates to that. Make sure people listen and stuff.”

“Well, I wish you the best of luck with that endeavor. Unfortunately, many are stuck in their ways. It comes with the age, I’m afraid,” Irving warned, then turned back to the computer. “Now, you mentioned a blog theme?”

* * *

Hours later, after Jaydyn had left for their meeting, Irving nearly had a heart attack when Dr. Jhandir opened the door to his office with such force that it scared Baby, who had been sweetly napping underneath his desk. Dr. Jhandir looked angry, which seemed to be his normal resting face, but his anger seemed to be directed at Irving, which was not ideal.

Irving took a deep breath to compose himself before directing his attention to the man in front of him. “Can’t you knock?” He asked, letting his annoyance come through in his voice.

“I did. You didn’t seem to hear it,” Dr. Jhandir said harshly. “I sent you an urgent request hours ago, so I felt like it was time to pay you an in-person visit.”

“I see that,” Irving sighed. “Well, unfortunately, I haven’t gotten to your request yet. I’ve been very busy all afternoon.”

“I doubt that,” Dr. Jhandir muttered, which only made Irving even more annoyed.

“I’ve been working,” Irving said, lifting his laptop and turning the screen towards Dr. Jhandir so he could see the screen, which was currently displaying his inbox. He only let Dr. Jhandir see it for a second before he put his laptop back down. “Now, if you could please let me work, otherwise your request might be delayed even further,” he said as he adjusted his glasses.

Dr. Jhandir turned his attention to the dog sitting under Irving’s desk. “I see you still have that...thing with you,” he gestured to Baby, who looked up at Irving with her big brown eyes, seemingly unaware of what was happening.

“We’ve been over this,” Irving replied, making a big show of clicking through his emails.

“I’m still allergic.”

“Well, as someone in the medical profession, I’m sure you can figure something out to fix that,” Irving looked back up at the other man, keeping his expression neutral. “Can you please let me get back to work? Otherwise, I’ll have to delay looking at your request until tomorrow.”

Dr. Jhandir scowled and pulled the door shut, which was a good enough answer for Irving. Baby jumped up at the sound of the door slamming, waddling over to check out the door. When she realized that it was nothing, she waddled back over to Irving and put her chin on his leg. He smiled down at her and pet her head, before turning back to his computer.

With the ease of a professional, Irving switched his tabs and went back to scrolling down his Tumblr dashboard. Dr. Jhandir _had_ interrupted him, so it was only fair that his request could wait.

This was _far_ more important.


End file.
